Subtlety
by cathxfair7197
Summary: Subtlety wasn't something they worked on at SEA, and if Hazel catches Sawyer staring at her one more time, she'll scream Another one-shot in a series of brain-children I have going
1. Chapter 1

If you had told Sawyer Nelson six months ago that he would have fallen for his best friend, he'd have told you to go jump in the shark tank. He probably would have taken it back, because he happened to like CMA's shark population, but the effect was good. Of course six months ago, they'd been recovering from an uncomfortably close call to losing Winter, and Sawyer was on a plane to Boston, any feelings for Hazel Haskett pushed aside for the time being. His only concerns had been that he would be leaving Winter for three months and that he was about to embark on the journey of a lifetime. Now he was back, and if you told Sawyer that he was falling for his best friend, he'd have again told you to go jump in the shark tank. But this time, it wouldn't have been because it was ridiculous. This time, it would be because it was true, but he wasn't about to admit it.

* * *

**CMA, Post-Closing Time**: It should have been like any other spring afternoon at CMA. Sawyer was on spring break from his sophomore year, and was spending every second at Clearwater to make up for the lost three months. He and Hazel were scrubbing the dolphin pools, keeping idle chatter, as they did every Wednesday and Sunday. Sawyer was stealing glances at Hazel at an embarrassingly high frequency, despite the fact that she kept catching him. Subtlety wasn't something they'd worked on during his time at SEA. She'd kind of just ignored it, but when he glanced over at her for seemingly the hundredth time, she'd had enough,

"Sawyer, what is your issue?" Sawyer's neck flushed red and he muttered, "Nothing, sorry," before scrubbing the side of the wall next to Winter's platform with renewed vigor. He could feel Hazel's eyes burning a hole in his t-shirt and he willed himself to stay staring at the water. Friends, friend, _friends, __**friends**_**, **he reminded himself over and over. It became a bit of a rhythm. Scrub the wall, _friends,_ scrub, _friends._ But in the silence that had followed Hazel's irritation, Sawyer's mind had run wild. He tried to focus on Winter, and the progress she was making in reversing the damage to her spine, but his mind kept returning to his best friend. She'd started popping up in his dreams, looking as beautiful and untouchable as she was in real life, at an irritatingly high frequency, and Sawyer would wake up, convinced that they were real for a second before reality would come crashing back.

"Sawyer. Sawyer. _Sawyer. Sawyer Nelson, pay attention!" _Hazel's voice snapped him out of his reverie. Hazel was standing in front of him, a hand on her hip, "Are you ok?" Sawyer shook his head a little,

"Yeah, I'm fine. Sorry, did you say something?" He finally worked up the courage to look at her, and her eyes were narrowed. He couldn't help but notice that her brown eyes were the exact same shade as Hope's, an observation that failed to help the matter in the slightest. Hazel sighed,

"I said, are you ok? You seem out of it. You've been scrubbing the same section of wall for the past five minutes." Sawyer nodded, "Yeah, I'm fine. Just a lot on my mind, I guess." He sat down on the platform, the water coming up to his waist. It was easier talking with his back to her. "Anything I can do?" Her voice was full of an endearing concern that made him smile, "No. Just some things I need to sort out on my own." He could hear her footsteps walking away and he turned to see her walking out to the gate,

"Hazel. _Hazel. What are you doing?_" The last time she'd released Winter and Hope into the training pool after hours and got caught swimming with them, they'd gotten yelled at by Clay for an impossibly long time about being irresponsible and messing around. She smiled at him,

"Sawyer Nelson, you are being an idiot. And if I can't break through the idiocy, I know someone who can." Then, as she went to bend down to pull open the gate, she lost her footing, and with a little shriek, fell into Winter and Hope's pool. Sawyer jumped up,

"Hazel! Hazel, are you ok?" He pulled himself out of the smaller pool and, trying not to slip, ran to the larger, sheltered one. Hazel surfaced, laughing. He breathed a sigh of relief,

"Are you insane?" Hazel just laughed and swam towards the platform. He reached a hand to help her up onto the platform and, to his shock, Hazel pulled with all her might and he tumbled, head first, into the pool with her. He surfaced, gasping and laughing,

"Hey!" Hazel was smiling from ear to ear, "Serves you right! That's payback for pulling me in last time!" Sawyer laughed and said, "Well, if that's payback, then I think I remember something like this happening after you landed," and he splashed her, which she reciprocated, alerting both the bottlenose dolphins to their presence. Much to both the dolphins' seeming delight, the two teenagers kept splashing like little kids and soon, it was an all out war, Hazel and Sawyer splashing each other and Hope and Winter just flinging water in the general vicinity. Shrieks of laughter echoed throughout the outdoor deck. Finally, Sawyer threw his hands up in surrender and swam towards the platform before pulling himself up. He offered his hand to Hazel again before withdrawing it,

"Are you going to pull me in again?" She laughed and shook her head. He clasped her hand in his and pulled her up. They stood, giggling and panting for a second, before Hazel sobered,

"Seriously, Sawyer. Are you sure you're ok?" Sawyer looked at her, his hair dripping in his eyes, and suddenly, he had the confidence to tell her, "Have you ever been in a situation where you want something more, but you don't want to mess up what you have?" Hazel's eyebrow furrowed, confused, but she nodded and he continued, "Well, when I was at SEA, I realized that there was a situation at home that I wanted something more from. There's this girl, you see. I can't stop thinking about her. But I've known her for a while and I don't want to mess up what I have with her. It's just so _good_. But I wake up in the morning wanting to be able to tell her how I feel, but I can't." He trailed off, hoping she'd catch what he was talking about. She didn't. So he plowed on, feeling a flush creeping up his spine, and his heart pounding a steady tattoo somewhere in his throat, "She's really funny, Hazel, and she just talks and talks all the time and it makes me smile and she's passionate about what I'm passionate about." He saw Hazel's face fall, "So go ask Susie out." Sawyer smiled, "You see, I would. But Susie's name doesn't match her eye color. Susie didn't talk to me when no one else would-"

Suddenly, a smile broke across Hazel's face and she cut him off, "Shut up and kiss me, Sawyer." He did a double take, shocked, "What?" She looked up at him, "I said, shut your idiot mouth and kiss me already." And so, standing knee deep in water, watched by two dolphins and Roofus the pelican, Sawyer Nelson took a step forward, pulled her in and kissed his best friend for the first time.

* * *

Phoebe was running late. Inappropriately late, actually. She still had to file the reports from Winter and Hope's sessions today, and check on their newest rescue, Jack the sea otter, as well as make sure Sawyer and Hazel had finished cleaning the deck, and her boyfriend would be here in 20 minutes to take her out. Speed walking, she went to make her way around the corner to Clay's office to file the reports and stopped dead. Standing on the platform of the dolphin pool were a dripping wet and kissing teenage boy and girl. The boy had one hand on the girl's waist and the other was resting at the nape of her neck. Both of the girl's hands were wrapped around the waist of the boy. Phoebe watched, smiling in triumph, as Hazel and Sawyer finally broke apart. Sawyer said something that Phoebe couldn't hear and Hazel laughed in return. Phoebe silently backed away as Hazel, blushing bright red made her way up the ladder, followed by a triumphantly smiling Sawyer. Let them have this for today, she thought. She'd be sure to give them absolute hell tomorrow, and remind them that they had both devoutly and separately stated that there would be nothing more between them. But for tonight, Phoebe could let this little moment slide.

* * *

If you had told Sawyer Nelson six months ago that he would kiss Hazel Haskett, he would have told you to go jump in the shark tank. But as he walked to find towels with Hazel, his mouth tingled and body surged with excitement. Because he'd kissed Hazel Haskett. And he wasn't about to stop.


	2. Chapter 2

So I know I said that Subtlety was going to be a one-shot, but I lied. Not sure how I feel about this, but I hope you guys like it. It's kind of based off my own personal awkwardness. For any Book Thief fans, I have a poem that I'm debating posting. Would you guys read it? Or should I stick to short stories here? Anyways, enjoy teenage awkwardness in its shining glory

* * *

If you'd told Hazel Haskett six months and a day ago that she'd have kissed her best friend, she'd have flushed bright red and stammered an unthreatening threat, probably something involving Roofus. She'd have taken it back, because she really had no control over the damn bird, but the effect was good. Of course six months ago, they'd been recovering from an horrible period of time, in which they lost Panama, Mandy and came uncomfortably to losing Winter, and Sawyer was on a plane to Boston, leaving Hazel to push aside any feelings for now. Her only concerns had been that she now had to revert back to being alone and that Winter was going to need help if she were to avoid another lapse into depression. Now he was back, and if you told Hazel that she was going to kiss her best friend, she'd have looked around for Roofus. But this time, it wouldn't have been because it was ridiculous. This time, it would be because it was true, and she wasn't about to give Phoebe the satisfaction of knowing.

* * *

CMA, Pre-Opening Time: _It's just any other day_, Hazel mentally hissed to herself as she and Phoebe prepped breakfast for the dolphins. She hadn't stopped smiling since yesterday, and it was becoming increasingly challenging to come up with reasons why she was grinning like the Cheshire Cat at nothing. Phoebe had spent the last five minutes interrogating her on just what was so smile-worthy about dead fish. She tried to focus on the supposedly delicious fish corpses in front of her, and internally sighed with relief when her phone buzzed. She wiped her hands and clicked the home button,

_Shut up and tell Phoebe I'm running late. Be there in ten._

Sawyer. He hadn't stopped telling her to shut up and do things since she'd told him to shut up and kiss her. She snorted and Phoebe turned around,

"What's so funny, now?" She pointed a fish at Hazel accusingly, "And none of this it's a beautiful day crap. At least try to tell a decent lie." Hazel blushed a little bit and typed a quick _ok, now shut up for real. See you soon._ She put her phone on the table and returned to the fish,

"Just Sawyer. He says he's running late." They picked up the buckets of fish and moved them to the dolphin platform for today's feeding session, to be done later, and in front of an audience,

"And why is Sawyer running late particularly funny?" _She knows. I don't know how she knows but she knows,_ the little voice in Hazel's head muttered as her stomach dropped slightly. Slightly wary, Hazel replied,

"He's being Sawyer. Sawyer says ridiculous things." Phoebe cocked her eyebrow. _She knows_.

"Oh, shut up, Phoebe." Hazel's voice took on a teasing and sarcastic tone as she headed towards the sink to rinse the fish guts off,

"Want me to kiss you, too? Or do you only kiss people you deny any sort of emotional connection to?" Hazel whirled around to see Phoebe grinning wickedly,

Hazel stared at her and said slowly, "How do you know about that?"

Phoebe examined her fingernails and opened her mouth, armed with a torrent of teasing when the door opened and Sawyer entered, slightly out of breath. Standing before him were a wickedly smirking Phoebe and an open-mouthed, flushed Hazel. They both turned to look at him,

"Sawyer!" Hazel and Phoebe cried at the same time, Hazel out of relief of having some back up, and Phoebe out of delight. Sawyer looked perturbed at the enthusiastic greeting.

Staring suspiciously at Phoebe, he slung his backpack off his shoulder and set it down, "What's going on?"

"Well, young Sawyer. Hazel was just about to explain herself. And yourself, actually. I mean, if we're being specific." Hazel watched as a flash of horror followed by a look of sheepish consent crossed his features. He glanced at her, and she gave him the _can't help you, I'm stuck too_ look.

"Phoebe, I don't know what you know, or how much you know, but if this interrogation could wait until after you go talk to Clay about running tests on Jack, I think Jack's health and Clay would appreciate it." He gestured over his shoulder, towards the inside of the marine hospital, where Phoebe knew Clay was just getting ready to start the day in his office.

"Oh, crap, I forgot about that." She pointed at the two of them, "We're not done here. I expect answers." She rushed off, leaving the two teenagers staring at the back of their tormentor. They looked back at each other and burst out giggling.

"So Phoebe knows," Sawyer shook his head and laughed. Hazel blushed a little bit,

"Well, it is your fault." Sawyer looked thoroughly indignant, and opened his mouth, closed it, and quipped,

"I resent that."

"Well it was your fault."

"You told me to kiss you."

"You kissed me!"

The two stared at each other in mock fury, each glaring at the other until Sawyer's resolve cracked and he burst out laughing again. Hazel lasted another two seconds before she cracked and they melted into gales of laughter. Hazel, still trying to catch her breath, looked up,

"Hey, Sawyer?"

Sawyer sobered slightly, "Yeah?"

Hazel smirked, "Shut up, would you?"


End file.
